I, Anar Mammadli, am submitting this communication from my cell…

1. I, Anar Mammadli, am submitting this communication from my cell in the Baku Investigation Isolator, where I am held together with an increasing number of human rights defenders, journalists, and civil activists of Azerbaijan. I have remained in this detention facility for 540 days (17 months and 21 days) without access to effective legal protection or a genuine judicial remedy.

2. I hereby submit this communication as a follow-up to my previous Rule 9(1) submission sent to you on 5 June 2024, in which I informed this Committee of Ministers about my unlawful arrest on 29 April 2024 and the Azerbaijani authorities’ continued refusal to implement the judgment in my case, Mammadli v. Azerbaijan (47145/14, 19 April 2018).

3. In that submission, I described in detail how criminal law continues to be misused to silence independent voices, the authorities’ persistent failure to quash my unlawful conviction, and the broader campaign of repression targeting journalists, human rights defenders, and civil society actors in Azerbaijan. I also recalled the Committee’s repeated decisions and interim resolutions urging Azerbaijan to comply with its obligations, none of which have produced any meaningful change, and asked the Committee of Ministers “use all available resources …., to consider all available options and tools, avoiding the repetition of previously used measures, … through enhanced collaboration with other Council of Europe institutions to demonstrate that further delays in executing the judgment in the Mammadli v. Azerbaijan case are no longer tolerated.”

4. Since my latest submission of the CM on 5 June 2024, my pre-trial arrest was then extended three times: first on 22 August 2024 until 27 November 2024, second on 20 November 2024 until 26 February 2025, and third on 15 February 2025 until 26 May 2025—bringing the total period of pre-trial detention to nearly 13 months (currently 17 months). All four pre-trial detention orders were issued without proper legal justification and in the absence of genuine review of judiciary. The domestic courts relied on standardised, formulaic references to the seriousness of the charges and the alleged complexity of the investigation but failed to identify any individualised grounds such as risk of absconding, reoffending, or interfering with the course of justice. My defence lawyers appealed each extension, but the Baku Appeal Court upheld the lower court’s decisions every time, repeating the same vague language and failing to substantiate any real necessity for my continued detention.

5. On 8 April 2025, Baku City Main Police Department aggravated the charges against me with six additional offences under the Criminal Code, in addition to the primary charge under Article 206.4 – smuggling (when committed by an organised group and in large quantities). On 8 April 2025, the investigation also involved another civil society activist, Anar Abdulla (former EMDSC volunteer), as an accused person with similar criminal charges. On 4 August, during a hearing at the Baku Court of Grave Crimes, Anar Abdullayev was arrested in the courtroom. Until then he had been under police supervision since 8 April 2025.

6. My trial began in late May 2025. The first preparatory hearing took place on 26 May 2025 at the Baku Court on Grave Crimes. During this hearing, my lawyers requested that I be placed under house arrest during the trial since the formal reasons (pressure on witnesses or absconding investigation) for pre-trial arrest were no longer valid. Despite this, the courts rejected the motion without providing any explanation or evidence, merely stating that “the grounds for detention had not been eliminated.”

7. On 23 June 2025, my trial continued at the Baku Court on Grave Crimes. My lawyer filed several motions to exclude unlawfully obtained documents from the evidence, pointing out that many materials lacked verifiable origin or creation details, were unsigned, or contained signatures that were not mine. At the hearing on 30 June 2025, the court rejected all defence motions—including the request to transfer me to house arrest, to exclude unlawfully obtained evidence, and to repeal the charges.

8. On 19 May 2022, the Government of Azerbaijan, in its communication (8/2-1293) submitted under Rule 8.2(a), informed the Committee of Ministers that the convictions of Mr Mammadli and others had been expunged, asserting that “no negative legal consequences remain” in respect of the applicants concerned. This formal assurance was presented as evidence of compliance with the Court’s judgment and of the State’s commitment to restitutio in integrum.

9. However, as consistently detailed in my subsequent Rule 9(2) submissions, this representation was both misleading and strategically manipulative, intended to create a false appearance of implementation. In reality, the Government has maintained the continuing legal effect of the unlawful conviction. Most strikingly, the indictment adopted by the Baku City Main Police Department on 6 May 2025 against me explicitly relies on the non-expunged conviction to construct a charge of recidivism and as an aggravating factor. On page 293 of the indictment, it is alleged that I committed new offences while my previous conviction “had neither been expunged nor fully served in accordance with the law,” and this is invoked under Articles 192.3.2, 193-1.3.1, 193-1.3.2, 206.4, and 213.2.1 of the Criminal Code as an aggravating circumstance increasing criminal liability and punishment. The indictment reads:

“The accused, Anar Asaf oglu Mammadli, despite having previously been convicted by the Baku Grave Crimes Court on 26 May 2014 for intentionally committing criminal offences of minor, less serious, and serious categories, and sentenced to five years and six months of imprisonment with deprivation of the right to hold managerial and materially responsible positions in state and local self-government bodies for a period of three years, and despite having been released from the unserved part of his sentence by the Presidential Pardon Decree No. 1903 of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated 17 March 2016, has again been intentionally charged with the criminal offences provided for under Articles 192.3.2, 193-1.3.1, 193-1.3.2, 206.4, and 213.2.1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan, without his conviction having been extinguished or expunged in accordance with the law. This, according to Article 61.1.1 of the Criminal Code, constitutes recidivism of crimes…”

10. Between 2019 and 2025, the Committee of Ministers adopted 25 decisions and 4 interim resolutions, consistently and unequivocally calling on the Azerbaijani authorities to eradicate the unlawful conviction and ensure the full restoration of my rights through restitutio in integrum. In parallel, through 15 Rule 8.2 submissions, 4 action reports, and 3 action plans submitted between 2019 and 2023, the Government repeatedly assured the Committee that the conviction had been expunged and all negative legal consequences eliminated. The current indictment provides unequivocal evidence that, for more than three years, the Government’s assurances to the Committee were misleading, as the conviction continued to produce full legal effects.

11. This conduct not only violates Azerbaijan’s obligations under the Convention but also constitutes a demonstrative challenge to the authority of the Committee of Ministers’ supervision mechanism, rather than respect for the Strasbourg system. If left unaddressed, this deliberate defiance risks entrenching a dangerous precedent that progressively undermines the integrity of the Convention system. What signal would such tolerance send to other member States about the binding force of Strasbourg judgments?

12. Therefore, at stake is not merely the implementation of individual judgments, but the credibility of the entire enforcement architecture of the European Convention on Human Rights.

13. Political imprisonment constitutes not only a profound violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms, but also a direct assault on the rule of law, democratic governance, and security. My second arrest on almost the same charges and evidence that the European Court of Human Rights has already found to be an abuse of power and a serious violation shows that no real reform has taken place in Azerbaijan’s judicial or prosecutorial system.

14. Unfortunately, Azerbaijan is exploiting the Russian invasion of Ukraine to intensify political repression in the country, treating the war as a strategic opportunity to act with impunity. Europe increasingly recognises that this war is not merely territorial but a direct assault on democratic order, freedoms, and human rights. In this context, the systematic use of law as an instrument to silence and punish those who defend these values constitutes a particularly dangerous form of repression—one that erodes the foundations of the Convention system and undermines collective security in Europe.

15. At this critical moment, I respectfully call on the Committee of Ministers to continue its determination in the face of the broader assault on democratic values and to safeguard trust in the Convention system. The continued non-implementation of the Mammadli v. Azerbaijan judgment now requires not only genuine and results-oriented political engagement but also a firm and coordinated response from the Council of Europe, including the adoption of a strong interim resolution with clear benchmarks and timelines for compliance. Sustained cooperation must be based on demonstrable progress toward quashing the unlawful conviction and on concrete guarantees that political imprisonments are not being repeated in practice.